


Old-Fashioned

by gaslightgallows (hearts_blood)



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Morning, Christmas Presents, F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, Sappy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 00:50:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5519375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearts_blood/pseuds/gaslightgallows
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>There was an utterly enormous something sitting beside the tree when Jane descended the stairs in her pyjamas, first of everyone, on Christmas morning. </i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Old-Fashioned

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Stef84](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stef84/gifts).



> Prompt: Christmas morning, I KNOW THAT ISNT A GOOD PROMPT BUT PLEASE I JUST WANT A CHRISTMAS MORNING DRABBLE WITH PHRYNE JACK AND JANE BECAUSE THESE 3 AS FAMILY ARE KILLING ME DEAD <3 <3 <3
> 
> Well, with a prompt like _that_ …. ;) Merry Christmas, Stef!

There was an utterly enormous something sitting beside the tree when Jane descended the stairs in her pyjamas, first of everyone, on Christmas morning. It was taller than she was, completely wrapped in plain brown butcher’s paper, unlike the smaller parcels under the tree, which were all brightly wrapped in varying stages of competency. (Jane could pick out which ones Dot and Mr. Butler had done, which were very neat, and which ones Miss Phryne had done, which were very… enthusiastic.) There was no decoration on the big object, no name tag, nothing to denote it as a Christmas present at all, save for the red ribbon holding the wrapping closed, and the big red bow planted with almost scientific precision right in the middle of the mysterious thing’s front. 

“That’s for you,” a deep, amused voice rumbled from behind her. 

She whirled round and saw Miss Phryne and Uncle Jack standing in the dining room archway, in their dressing gowns, with steaming mugs in their hands. “Happy Christmas,” Jack grinned. 

“Were you there the whole time?” Jane asked, grinning back and coming over to hug them. 

“Oh, for a while,” Phryne said, kissing Jane’s forehead and giving Jack a rueful look that spoke of how little sleep they’d gotten the night before. “There’s cocoa in the kitchen… but I think your mind’s on other things,” she teased.

“Is it… really for me?” Jane asked. She’d asked for small things for Christmas, books and new gramophone records and a chemistry set, but nothing that was almost twice as tall as she was. 

“Yes!” said Phryne, her eyes dancing. “Go!”

Jane scampered back into the parlour, followed by her guardians, who were almost as excited as she was. Phryne slipped her hands into Jack’s and squeezed. “God, I hope she likes it,” she heard him mutter under his breath. 

“She’ll love it.”

“But it’s so old-fashioned…”

“It’s just what she needs. She’ll adore it, darling.”

Tentatively, Jane took hold of the red ribbon and tugged it free. It was plain that she had no idea what it could be. 

The restraining ribbon removed, the stiff butcher’s paper managed to stand up on its own for a second or two, but in another moment the paper fell away like a dream, revealing a tall gleaming secretary desk made of dark, hand-rubbed wood. Shining brass handles adorned the drawers, the flat slanted front opened and folded down on arms, and on top of the whole thing, a glass door-fronted bookcase sat, empty and waiting. Jane gasped. “For… me?” She turned round, eyes wide and astonished. “For _me_?”

Jack nodded, unable to keep the wide, almost bashful grin from his cheeks. “You’ve been wanting a proper desk, and a better bookcase, and short of turning all your books into a bed, I couldn’t see how to fit both of those things into your bedroom, so…”

“Uncle Jack, it’s _perfect_!” Jane launched herself at him and gave him a good squeeze round his middle. “And it’s beautiful! It’s like the one in your library.”

“That’s where I got the idea, Janey.”

A terrible thought occurred to Jane. “You didn’t… that’s not the one from your library, is it? I wouldn’t want to take that from you.”

Jack’s eyes, and Phryne’s, were suddenly very bright. “Not a bit of it,” said Jack, hugging her. “I just used mine as a pattern, and built you one just like it.”

“You _built_ it? For me?” 

Jack nodded, biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing and crying at the same time. “All for you, little girl.”

Overcome, Jane pressed a big kiss to Jack’s cheek, and then hugged Phryne tightly. “Thank you thank you thank you – let’s bring it upstairs now!”

Laughing, they persuaded her to leave it by the tree for the moment, so that Mr. and Mrs. Collins and Aunt Prudence could admire it when they arrived for Christmas dinner. “And,” Phryne pointed out, “there are other parcels for you to open.”

Jane’s eyes went wide, and she raced back to the tree. 

Jack and Phryne hung back. “You see?” she told him softly, stretching up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to his cheek. “I told you she’d love it. Even if it is a bit old-fashioned,” she added, her eyes twinkling. “But then, _you’re_ a bit old-fashioned, in your way, and she likes you just fine.”

“Hmph. And so do you.”

“And so do I.”


End file.
